Cutting wheels equipped with knife assemblies suitable for performing size reduction operations on products, methods of operating cutting wheels, knife holders for such knife assemblies, methods of manufacturing knife holders, and slicing machines capable of utilizing such cutting wheels. The knife assemblies each have a leading edge that faces a direction of rotation of the cutting wheel, a trailing edge oppositely disposed from the leading edge, and a cutting edge on the leading edge. Each knife assembly further has a knife holder having a first surface that faces the products advanced toward the cutting wheel in a feed direction and a registration surface formed in the first surface. The registration surface is defined by at least a first recessed planar surface that is recessed a distance relative to the first surface and defines with the first surface at least a first step therebetween.
